July 19, 2010

Whistleblowers Want Tough Sentence for Scott Bloch

Whistleblower groups and some former employees of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel want more than probation for Scott Bloch, a former head of the office who is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after a long-running criminal investigation.

In a six-page letter to U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson, lawyers for the whistleblower groups and former employees describe Bloch’s stormy tenure from 2004 to 2008. They note allegations that Bloch discriminated against gay and lesbian employees, that he retaliated against employees who tried to draw attention to his actions, and that he interfered with federal investigators when he hired “Geeks on Call” to wipe out computer files.

As the independent U.S. special counsel, Bloch was one of the federal government’s top lawyers for investigating waste, fraud and abuse, and for protecting whistleblowers.

In April, Bloch pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of withholding information from Congress, and he’ll be sentenced by Robinson. He faces up to six months in prison, but this month, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said they would not oppose probation.

Though it does not call explicitly for prison time, the letter on behalf of whistleblowers says probation wouldn’t be strong enough. “On behalf of the victims of Mr. Bloch’s unlawful conduct, we urge the Court to award a sentence that appropriately reflects the severe, long-lasting, and broad impact of his actions,” reads
the letter (PDF).

Debra Katz and Avi Kumin of Katz, Marshall & Banks in Washington wrote the whistleblowers’ letter on behalf of their clients, who include: an unspecified number of former Office of Special Counsel employees, the Government Accountability Project, and the Project on Government Oversight.

Bloch is now an employment lawyer at Washington’s Tarone & McLaughlin. A message left today with his attorney, Winston & Strawn partner William Sullivan Jr., was not immediately returned.

UPDATE (7/20): Among the groups mentioned in the letter is the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates on behalf of gays and lesbians, but Katz and Kumin do not represent the organization with regard to Bloch's criminal sentencing, Kumin clarified Tuesday.

Comments

Mr. Bloch was not charged with wrongful acts based on the deletion of the computer files, but with making incomplete answers to questions by investigators. It really isn't clear that he did anything wrong at all. The price of a good defense is very, very expensive, and it sounds like Mr. Bloch is making a financial decision in making the plea to a misdemeanor charge. I wonder how much of our tax money was used up in the prosecution of this "major criminal" by our "Justice" Department (a la Martha Stewart).

Well, another possibility is that the government had no case. Like most people who are targeted by these unending investigations, Bloch is probably just about broke and under pressure from his lawyers to resolve a case for which he can't pay fees. So he pled guilty to misdemeanor "contempt of Congress" based on incomplete responses to congressional questioning. That's a joke of a charge. If prosecutors with nearly unlimited resources can't come up with something more substantive than that after multiple years of work, they should have the integrity to drop the charges. I'd bet there's no real evidence that this guy did anything wrong.

What about his ethical duties as a lawyer? Is his state bar aware of these charges?

As we all know, lawyers get disciplined (and sometimes very severely) for inadvertent mistakes. I can't imagine a state bar being sympathetic to a litigator who, knowing there's an on-going federal investigation, hires an outside firm to intentionally wipe out the computer files of his own and other top-level officials' computers.

How very interesting that this egregious instance of "spoliation of evidence" was sanitized into the seemingly harmless "witholding information" from Congress.

I get disgusted with "INSIDERS" expecting only a slap on the wrist for committing crimes for which we ordinary citizens would receive jail time. Furthermore, having the prosecution team, paid for with our taxes, "go along with" leniency is a perversion of the justice system. Please make it clear to this defendant that his crime/s will not go unpunished.

Why would a law firm hire a guy like this? What a role model for associates and clients. Hi, "we just hired an attorney who is discriminatory, retaliatory, and destructive to files. How would you like him to represent you?"